NK NEWS BRIEF | June 5, 2013

POSTED June 5, 2013

The nine young North Korean refugees photographed in Laos before being detained and taken back to Pyongyang | Photo: AP

NK INTERNAL

KJU seems to have gotten his own pin badge.
The KPA is collecting textile off-cuts from factories in the KIC and selling them to China. “A trading company run by the Army is reportedly in charge of smuggling textile off-cuts out of the industrial park and selling them to Chinese rag businesses that recycle them into padding for sofa cushions and mattresses or oilcloth for car repair shops.” A ROKG source said that NKorean soldiers “have always made money by collecting leftover pieces of fabric…”

ECONOMY & FOOD SECURITY

AP with more on moves towards economic liberalization. RI Ki Song, NKorean economist: “Last year, we studied reasonable economic management methods in different fields of economic work, and introduced it to some units on a trial basis.” He said North Koreans work hard, but the new incentives give them motivation to work even harder. “They are saying that higher salaries and shares will improve their life.” The main goal: to encourage “greater profits” and solve North Korea’s chronic food shortage, Ri said.
Daily NK: “Sources have confirmed that collective farms are now offering part of their land to non-farmers in exchange for 30% of production derived from it, in effect renting farmland to private individuals.”
Reuters on NK’s “foreign currency invasion” and effective loss of control over monetary policy.
Global Times on NK’s challenging business environment for Chinese traders, including difficulty being recovering payments for agreed deals, the “deathly boring” and restricted life in Pyongyang, changing policies and poor infrastructure, and whole plants being confiscated. (Recommended).

REFUGEES

The Laos govt confirmed that they handed nine young North Koreans over to the DPRK embassy, but claimed that they were between the ages of 14 and 18.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman: “We have received credible information that the nine young North Korean defectors were subsequently returned to [North Korea] via China. We are dismayed … especially given the vulnerability of this group, all of whom are reported to be orphans.”
Chinese MFA spokesman: “We hope that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN does not make irresponsible remarks based on unspecified news.”
President Park referred to the incident as a “truly regrettable incident that should never have happened.”
US State Dept: “We urge all countries in the region to co-operate in the protection of North Korean refugees within their territories.”
Extra photos of the Laos 9.
Bloomberg feature on NKorean defectors, including Choi Hyun-mi, WBA featherweight champion.
Reuters on the new generation of defectors speaking out for their people, including Hyeonseo Lee, Dong-hyuk Shin, Ji Seong-ho et al.

HUMAN RIGHTS

US State Dept Report on International Prison Conditions: “In North Korea, political detainees are routinely subjected to systematic physical and psychological mistreatment… According to numerous defector accounts and NGO reports, prisoners experience severe beatings, electric shock, public nakedness, confinement in small immobile cells, and the coercion of mothers to watch infanticide of their newborns.”

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS & SECURITY

38 North: New commercial satellite imagery confirms that NK is making important progress in key nuclear facilities at Yongbyon.
US State Dept on impact of sanctions on humanitarian aid to NK: “We encourage North Korea to work closely with the international NGO community, international organizations, Europeans and others, to ensure alternate financial services are available so these organizations can continue the important work they are carrying out in North Korea… We want aid to make its way to the people of North Korea. In addition to encouraging the North Korean government to be helpful, we’ll remain focused on seeing what’s possible.”
Opposition Syrian human rights activists: “The North Korean officers are spread throughout many fronts, including the Syrian Defense Ministry factories southeast of Aleppo and in the regime’s forces centers in Aleppo.” He claimed that they do not take part in the actual fighting, yet provide the Assad army with logistic support and construct operational plans. “They also supervise the regime’s artillery in the region.”
Reuters source: China told Choe Ryong-hae that NK should stop its nuclear and missile tests and instead focus on rebuilding its economy, but Choe said the SPT format didn’t work and they would instead seek bilateral ties with the various parties.

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Dennis Halpern: “Certainly not by coincidence, a Lao delegation was recently in Pyongyang. How much blood money did Kim Jong Un pledge in return for the forced repatriation of refugees? Did this lead the Lao to renege on the “gentlemen’s agreement” on North Korean refugees which they had previously reached with the South Korean Embassy in Vientiane?”

MISC.

NK News Brief acronyms.

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